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'The Game' scores a ratings touchdown in return on BET

January 12, 2011 | 2:59
pm

"The Game," a comedy about the women involved with the players on a fictional San Diego football team that was yanked off the CW schedule last year due to poor ratings, staged a triumph Tuesday when it returned with new episodes on BET, scoring the top-rated ad-supported sitcom broadcast in cable history.

The series return attracted 7.7 million total viewers, according to Nielsen Co. The episode also ranked as the second-highest rated broadcast in BET history, behind the 2009 "BET Awards."

Executives at the network decided to resurrect "The Game" when they noticed the popularity of episodes that had previously aired on the CW. The new version of "The Game" features the original cast, including Tia Mowry and Wendy Raquel Robinson.

BET was also celebrating the initial audience reception to "Let's Stay Together," a relationship comedy paired with the game. That series, which has Queen Latifah as one of its executive producers, attracted 4.4 million viewers.

The new comedy block marks BET's most ambitious move into original scripted programming. The cable network targeted to African Americans has specicalized in reality shows, music-related series and music videos.